Romney: How bipartisan was he really?

NBCNews.com’s Tom Curry looks at whether Romney would cut FEMA funding. Romney said in a CNN debate during the GOP primary that localizing and even privatizing are generally the best ways to go. He said then: “Every time you have an occasion to take something from the federal government and send it back to the states, that's the right direction. And if you can go even further and send it back to the private sector, that's even better.”

Asked specifically about disaster relief in the wake of the Joplin, MO, tornado, Romney said: “We cannot afford to do those things without jeopardizing the future for our kids. It is simply immoral, in my view, for us to continue to rack up larger and larger debts and pass them on to our kids, knowing full well that we'll all be dead and gone before it's paid off.”

Romney campaign spokeswoman Amanda Henneberg said: "Gov. Romney believes that states should be in charge of emergency management in responding to storms and other natural disasters in their jurisdictions. As the first responders, states are in the best position to aid affected individuals and communities, and to direct resources and assistance to where they are needed most. This includes help from the federal government and FEMA.”

“In his closing pitch to voters, Mitt Romney is leaning hard into the idea that he and Paul Ryan will work as bipartisan deal makers if they claim the White House,” Politico writes. “But the likelihood of Romney and Ryan locking arms with ‘good Democrats,’ as Romney put it this week, to solve the nation’s problems is dubious given the GOP nominee’s legislative priorities.” Romney’s first priority is repealing the health-care law, which would “hardly foster the bipartisan atmosphere that Romney has recently lauded. Repealing the law is a ‘red line’ for most Democrats, according to several lawmakers and party officials.”

And: “Furthermore, Romney’s team would like Congress to pass a package of targeted reductions of already approved spending soon after the Republican is installed in the White House, according to sources familiar with his plans. But Democrats have been cool to the idea of additional spending cuts without revenue increases.”

NPR’s David Welna reported: “Romney clearly did not relish having to work with a Legislature that was 85 percent Democratic. He pushed hard during his first two years as governor to boost the number of Republicans on Beacon Hill. But that effort was a failure; Republicans ended up losing seats in the midterm elections. Romney gave up on party building. ‘From now on,’ he told The Boston Globe, ‘it's me-me-me.’ … Boston University political historian Thomas Whalen says passing the state's health care law pushed Romney well outside his comfort zone.”

More: “But apart from health care, Romney defined success not with big-picture legislative accomplishments but with confrontation. In a 2008 campaign ad, Romney actually bragged about taking on his Legislature: ‘I like vetoes; I vetoed hundreds of spending appropriations as governor,’ he said. Romney issued some 800 vetoes, and the Legislature overrode nearly all of them, sometimes unanimously.”

While he was trying to reassure conservatives in 2007, a Romney ad touted: In the most liberal state in the country, one Republican cut spending instead of raising taxes, enforced immigration laws, stood up for traditional marriage, and the sanctity of human life. Romney: “This isn’t the time for us to shrink from conservative principles. It’s a time for us to stand in strength, strong military, strong economy, strong families. In the toughest place, Mitt Romney’s done the toughest things.”

Another: I know how to veto. I like vetoes. I vetoed hundreds of spending appropriations as governor, and frankly, I can’t wait to get my hands on Washington.

“Hurricane Sandy may be a safe distance from Wisconsin, but the Frankenstorm has upended Mitt Romney’s late push to claim the Badger State’s 10 electoral votes,” the Daily Beast writes. “The Republican presidential nominee was compelled to axe an event in suburban Milwaukee, a GOP stronghold, Monday evening as his team (like President Obama’s) apparently decided to stop politicking with flooding, power outages, and even deaths on the horizon.”

More: “Wisconsin political insiders and longtime observers of the state’s elections don’t dismiss out of hand the possibility of a Romney upset, but given that George W. Bush came up a few thousand votes short here both in 2000 and 2004 (while winning neighbor Ohio), a last-minute sprint by Romney suggests fear that the electoral college math just isn’t adding up in some of the swing states he originally intended to win, like Ohio, Iowa, and Virginia.”

In search of one EV: Reuters: “Supporters of Republican presidential candidate Mitt Romney are scouting an unlikely path to the White House through the vast forests and blueberry barrens of northern Maine.”

“Two Republican super PACs are making a late play to try to crack Democratic-leaning Pennsylvania, spending a combined $3.2 million to air TV commercials across the state in support of Mitt Romney,” thePhiladelphia Inquirer writes, adding, “The purchases come amid polls showing Obama's lead in Pennsylvania narrowing.”